So as we all have heard at some point, Batman Arkham Origins has a multiplayer mode; one which is currently in a semi-closed Beta test going on right now on Xbox and PS3. The premise of the Invisible Predator game mode is pretty simple; Joker and Bane are having a turf war and it is up to Batman and Robin to break things up. With a lot of the same gadgets found in single player alongside a slew of upgrades for the customizable thugs, Invisible Predator promises to offer at least some depth alongside the main game. So how does this game mode stack up when outside of the finely controlled conditions of a press event? About as well as a finely polished turd might stand up to a plate glass window.

The game mode is in beta, and things could very well change. However that list is quite long and extensive, I can only hope the other game modes offer something much different in terms of gameplay. As it has been touched on before, you can play as Batman or Robin in the role of a hero. The heroes’ goal is simple, intimidate the living daylights out of all the thugs present and fill a meter which will end the match due to the bad guys running out of spare whitey-tighties. With a massive collection of tools, vents, gargoyles and moves at your disposal it would seem like being Batman or Robin would be just like the single player games. Problems arise upon realizing that the heroes seem to not only have paper thin suits that offer very little health, but that even with detective vision disrupting abilities, the limited amount of ways to approach certain choke points spell absolute death for our heroes.

Thugs on the other hand offer up a fun cover based third person shooter. In stark contrast to the heroes, Joker and Bane’s gang members have a series of both cosmetic and class customizations. Even the stock weapons you start with are strong enough to take down all but the super villains themselves. Upgrades are essentially the same for both gangs; a stun/kill trap, a remote controlled air ship/helicopter, and a variety of weapons. Players can even deck out their thugs in all sorts of various unlockable clothes, tattoos and hair styles. There are even separate loadouts that can be unlocked as well.

Unlockables are gained by both leveling up and purchasing them using credits earned by playing the game. These credits can also be bought for real money as dlc too, a move that is all too similar to how unlocks were handled in Gotham City Imposters. These “shortcuts” are nothing compared to experience, knowing where the heroes can hide, where super villain, ammo, spawn points are can make or break the three man team. Once Joker or Bane comes out to play, a mixture of feces and blood hits the fan at a rate proportional to how fast one or both of them reloads their various explosive weapons. Considering the difficulties the heroes face against regular thugs, adding the villains into the mix makes it exceptionally harder for them to stand a chance. I was playing as Joker, caught completely unaware with explosive gel, then got the crap kicked out of me, only to turn around and instantly kill robin with a single shot from my revolver.

This is how the game mode currently makes me feel.

Invisible Predator Online is currently a fairly broken game mode, and while it does promise to offer up something fundamentally different from the slew of tacked on check boxes that most other games call multiplayer; it is currently a tower that not even superman could leap in a single bound. Sure, there are the usual varieties of cosmetic problems that plague any beta, but the massive issue of imbalance alongside the shoehorned credits for real cash really brings down the experience. I really do wish to see the multiplayer become something special and stand on its own alongside the main campaign, but like a good live action DC comics movie, I’m afraid that might never happen.

Credit is owed where credit is due, and to any developer who is willing to take the time and fix mistakes made with their game deserves respect in my book. That being said, Revelations 2012 was recently updated and the folks over at Dark Artz Entertainment have more coming down the pipeline for one of the arguably worst games of the year. The latest patch promises to bring changes that make a massive difference to the game, promise being a key word. Will the new improvements be enough to make Revelations 2012 playable, or did Dark Artz manage to just make things worse?

The new rocket launcher, now with even less ammo!

Being based on the Source engine, Revelations 2012 is a game about the slaying of hundreds of “demons” that are based on Mayans. The game also has the honor of being a driving force as to why Greenlight now exists. Essentially the point of the game is to collect the crystal skulls from each level and advance on until you face a boss fight. Defeating each boss awards a new weapon, which will start unlocked at the beginning of the next level. A simple concept that proves to be quite unfinished in practice.

Now you can pew pew in style with this new rifle! (the scope still doesn't work on widescreen.)

Understandably Revelations 2012 is clearly a work in progress as of this latest patch, and in the console some things are logged literally as such. The removal of nearly all competitive versus modes, as well as the very broken dance mechanic, and by extension the only things that were actually good about the game in the first place, seem to not bode well for making the game any better. However Dark Artz decided to start the process of development from square one, first by reworking the existing characters and adding the sci-fi elements of armor and new weapons. The weapons themselves are nearly unchanged from their original forms aside from appearances and ammo collection. Only the shotgun was really changed, as it now fires faster and has since become the weapon of choice to deal with the “demon” horde. Player characters now seem to run much slower than before, even without the sliding health to speed scale that Left for Dead has. Assuming that was an actual change instead of the fact that dancing was removed and along with it the glitch of dancing while running to increase speed overall. Out of all the changes, only one made a real difference, and even then, it wasn't a fix to a problem, but a removal of the issue all together.

Because holding a shotgun like that is how ALL the pros do it.

Upon starting the game, players used to be greeted to a deafening clinking of coins that could not be stopped due to the master volume control not working properly for menu music. The start screen is now completely gone, and in its place stands a very near replica of the standard Left for Dead 2 menu. Included as well was a new version of a level, that started off with dropping the player into an arena in which they are ordered to destroy the demon spawners with no control as to when the mission actually starts. Somehow Dark Artz decided it was a great idea to change up the point of view as well, instead of having it properly set at the head, it is now at shoulder level, akin to many popular shooters, causing issues where looking at another player at “eye-level” means staring into their chest. Even with numerous issues Revelations 2012 does have potential, however slight it might be.

The level design is just as great as before, now with even more holes and tearing.

With the promise of more fixes in the future, Dark Artz is committing to a lot, and if this current patch is any sign of what's to come, then it will be interesting to see how they attempt to rebuild it. The usual treatment for a game of Revelations's caliber is typically a ground up reboot, because sometimes it really is just better to scrap something and start fresh, hopefully Dark Artz can pull it off and create something great. With more time and proper development maybe Revelations 2012 can become more than just a shoddy knock off of Left for Dead 2, maybe. Much credit is due for Dark Artz attempting to fix their mistakes and make Revelations 2012 a game people actually want to play. However, anyone can get credit for putting their name at the top of the test, but you still have to put in the effort to spell it correctly.

As much as I respect and love Jim as a journalist, there is one point I have to make about his review of Revelations 2012. Jim was wrong -- so wrong about the game, he couldn’t have possibly been further from the truth about this game. Revelations 2012 isn’t anywhere near as bad as Jim has made it out to be.

It’s worse.

Breaking your arm? Insta-death

Revelations 2012 (PC)By: Dark Artz Entertainment

Even by reading the description on Steam’s storefront, this game screams of a cheap cash-in. The story is supposedly about how the end of the Mayan Calendar is upon us and the entire world has to be saved by a British archeologist with a southern accent and problems with overactive erectile dysfunction, and three other random white people of various issues. It is more than likely deeper than that, but due to nearly the entire story being contained in the opening sequence that found me nearly tossing my monitor into a crib full of small kittens, I had to stop watching. The rest of the storyline can essentially be summed up as murdering various Mayan gods so that you can steal their power and then murder even more “demons” that just happen to look very human.

After skipping the opening sequence, players will find themselves scrambling for the sound menu in hopes of turning down the maxed out menu music volume. While the sound option doesn’t work for any sort of menu volume, it will give you the chance to bind nearly all of your keys. Yup, primary fire, melee, and even quick switching weapons are not bound on first run, and even the secondary fire button is relegated to a mouse button that only exists on higher end mice. It is also worth noting that the entire menu is simply an Arial Bold reskin of the Left 4 Dead 1 menus, a theme that carries through the whole game. Once you have everything set, and a few gallons of liquor in hand, you might be able to start this terrible knockoff of Left 4 Dead.

If you love T-poses, you'll love this game.

Starting the game there are a few things that become apparent: any amount of water at all will slow the players to a crawl, and the fastest method of movement is to dance. Other facets of game play are simply appalling. The only weapon is bland and practically useless in quite a few situations, and while it does offer different firing modes, I found myself favoring the shotgun mode that is awarded for beating the first boss over anything else. Even with friends, the campaign is a mess that usually involves someone having to wait around the Mayan version of a closet to let out the poor fellow who got caught in the unstoppable death traps which are strewn about like bird food after a squirrel has made off with the feeder. The other portion of the time will mainly be spent running around like a mad man trying to find the crystal skulls and escape the horrid level design. While the campaign is supposed to be the meat and potatoes, the multiplayer takes what few things did work, and break them even further.

With three competitive multiplayer modes to choose from, Revelations 2012 tries to make players believe there is fun to be had outside of murdering hundreds of Mayans. Sadly however, the various modes are each more broken than the last. The only one that remotely works is the "team" deathmatch, and that is assuming everyone is aware that both players can't be human. Stasis mode is just the same thing, but set up like freeze tag with railguns instead. The final mode is supposed to be a strategic MOBA kind of thing, but it usually ends in who can slaughter the most Mayans first.

No matter what, everyone's arm will always remain at that odd angle.

Supposedly hope is on the way, with Dark Artz promising new content, and a completely revamped game sometime in the future. It will likely end up being an empty promise, considering the company's past interactions with the steam community. The drama behind the development team is enough to fill another blog on its own, and anyone interested can head to the game's steam forum for details.

There is a lot of profane and horrible things I could say about this game, but to simply sum up my eight hours of pure hell I have to say that this is the single worst piece of garbage ever made. With such fine mods for Left 4 Dead available to everyone for free there is literally no excuse to ever charge money for something like this.

Disqualified:- Otaconstfu - Did not play TF2
- KGameLover1 - Did not play TF2
- DrManik - Doesn't even own TF2
- Raynethebos - Doesn't have steam
- Kratoscrux - Wasn't a member in good standing

The following prizes will be awarded:

Haunter, Super Penguin, DF, GoofierBrute, and Tekbunny will be photoshopped into the TF2sday spray. Those of you to be made into the TF2sday image, please send Swishiee a decent image of your head. Since Haunter is first, he gets first choice in class and so forth. If you need to know what's left, look at this and tell me what class you want to be shooped onto.

I'm a huge fan of the last airbernder show, I'm aware of all the awesome reviews. so my opinion should not really matter.
The game starts out like the show, you fing Aang trapped in an iceberg, then you frees aang from the iceberg, sounds similar. You then bring aang back to your village, you soon realise it's your destiny to travel with aang so he can learn water bending, you go to aang's air temple in which he lived with the monks, when he goes there he realises that his people were killed in a war with the fire nation, aang then thows a huge tantrum going into the avatar state, you then calm him down, sounds like the show doesn't it? So you all travel to the northern water tribe with him so he can learn water bending.
Zuko wants to prove to his father that he's worthy enough by capturing the avatar, oh and I'm really happy he discusses his scar, the scar is clearly there, and I think it's pretty crappy how they made the fire nation cel shaded, it makes them look funny compared to everyone else.
Who cares if you play as everyone from the show at diffrerent times, but you know? its SO awesome, because they all kick so much ass.
The blue spirit scene is exactly like the show, and I mean EXACT. When they get to the northern water tribe you meet princess yue, whom you can fall in love with, but after the general kills one of the fishes within the fountain that gave them energy from the moon to bend, princess yue then sacrifices herself to the life that the fish gave her when she was a baby, which is why her hair is snow white, just like in the show. Zuko faces the general, aang goes into the avatar state and stops the wave from destroying the water tribe.

That's it, what else do you want? Sure they left bumi out, and they left out sokka's silliness, and its a terrible shame. The animations were god awful, the voice acting was non existant, the effects were literally cardboard cutouts, and it follows the story about as well as the movie. Fight scenes were boring, the bending rpg minigame was a pain and useuless, and appa and momo looked like the demonic hauntings of my childhood.

Overall, I think this game is extremly terrible, I gotta give props to EA for destroying my childhood, can't wait for the sequel to get buried in the desert next to ET the game!